Joystick ergonomic study in material handling using virtual humans

摘要: Raw material and product manufacturing are related to material handling. Although there have been great advances in technologies, regulations, methodologies, strategies, and workplace safety, the number of fatalities, the severity of injuries, and the number of lost workdays per accident-incident related to material handling continue keeping high. Some hand injuries occur when the operators repetitively use joysticks to handle materials in manufacturing environment. This paper studies joystick ergonomics used in the material handling equipment and evaluates the design and use of joysticks using a new generation of virtual humans (Santos™). The Denavit-Hartenberg method is implemented to analyze the 25-degree-of-freedom (DOF) hand model of the virtual humans. Human performance measures (joint torques and joint displacements) are criteria for the design of joysticks in the material handling machines.